News Room - Steel Prices

Posted on 09 Mar 2022

ASEAN longs prices spring up

Market participants in Southeast Asia are struggling to keep abreast of the surge in prices for long products, Kallanish notes. Regional longs prices continue to shoot up this week in tandem with global markets.

Offers for regional blast furnace 6.5mm diameter wire rod from Malaysia and Indonesia are prevailing at $860-865/tonne cfr Manila, up from $830/t cfr last Thursday. A Vietnamese mill’s export offer for blast furnace wire rod is at $870/t fob Vietnam. “We are lost and not sure what price to offer now,” a manager at an electric arc furnace mill said on Tuesday. 

Rebar import prices have also sprung up in Singapore. The above-mentioned Vietnamese mill has also hiked its export offer for 16-32mm theoretical-weight rebar for April/May shipment to $870/t cfr Singapore, Singaporean importing sources say. A 30,000-tonne cargo from the same Vietnamese mill was booked at a base price of $765/t cfr Singapore early in the week through 25 February. The mill charges $10/t extras for 10mm and 40mm sizes.

A 50,000t Qatar-origin 10-40mm diameter theoretical-weight rebar cargo was booked last week at $815/t cfr Singapore.

There is market chatter that a stockist booked a second Middle Eastern theoretical-weight rebar cargo for May shipment at $840/t cfr. The trader thinks that the cargo was probably booked earlier, possibly last month. The booking price, which would equate to around $780/t fob is too low for today's market, he says. His agent has told him that Turkish rebar is now offered at $910/t fob Turkey. "I’ll be surprised if the company paid this price," a trader says. “While it is a low price by international standards, there is sufficient inventory in Singapore to last for three months.”

"The market is going crazy,” a Singapore supplier observes. A leading Singapore stockist recently alerted end-users of domestic price increases for rebar in line with the sharp price hikes in raw materials and energy amid trade disruptions and supply shocks resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war.

“With increasing raw materials and fuel prices and the supply fallout from the Ukraine crisis, we expect local rebar prices to jump to S$1,300-1,400/t [$952-1,025] in the short term,” BRC Asia notified its customers on 8 March. "New quotes are at S$1,250/t from yesterday," a sales manager added on Tuesday. Stockists and suppliers were trying to push prices to as high as S$1,200/t last week.

Source:Kallanish